Wyeth, which has set aside more than $16 billion to resolve fen-phen litigation, asked a Texas judge Tuesday to reduce a $1 billion verdict awarded to the family of a woman who died after taking the diet drug.

Lawyers for the pharmaceutical company asked Judge Donald Floyd in Beaumont to grant a new trial based on errors they claimed took place during the trial. They also asked him to overturn or cut the verdict to $35 million or less.

"The law is very clear," said Wyeth lawyer Leslie Benitez. "There is no basis for the court to avoid the state's punitive damages limitation." Judge Floyd is expected to rule by the end of the month.

Cynthia Cappel-Coffey of Beaumont died in January 2003 of primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare lung-shredding disease, after taking the diet drug fen-phen. On April 27, a jury awarded her family $1.5 million in economic damages, $112 million in additional actual damages and $900 million in punitive damages.

Texas law limits punitive damages in most circumstances to twice the amount of economic loss, plus $750,000.

Richard Clarkson, a lawyer representing the Cappel-Coffey family, said, "The court has reviewed this time and time again. The evidence is more than sufficient" to justify the award.